Premier League's plans to introduce automated offside system are being held up

The Premier League are yet to introduce an automated offside system because of their contract with ball suppliers Nike, say reports.

It has been a week to forget for PGMOL, the body responsible for referees in the Premier League.

They admitted to making a "significant human error" after Luis Diaz's goal against Spurs was incorrectly disallowed for offside, and later posted a damning audio clip from the incident in North London.

Jurgen Klopp has since called for the game to be replayed following the "unprecedented" incident.

As a result of last week's controversy surrounding the use of VAR in England's top flight and its role in determining offside calls, many have called on the Premier League to follow others by using a semi-automated system.

Semi-automated offside technology is a support tool for officials to help them make "faster, more reproducible and more accurate offside decisions", according to the FIFA website.

The technology uses 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof of the stadium to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating their exact position on the pitch.

A number of competitions, including this season's Champions League and the Qatar World Cup, use camera and limb-tracking technology to make on-field decisions with minimal fuss.

And it appears the Premier League are planning to introduce an automatic offside system which would remove the need for humans to draw lines.

That being said, their commercial contract with Nike is delaying any immediate action, according to The Daily Mail, who claim the Nike's match balls are yet to be extensively trialled with the new technology.

The report goes on to suggest it will not be an issue moving forward as "alternative technologies have been developed which do not require a sensor to be placed in the ball."

The frustrating thing is we are putting officials in the firing line unnecessarily.

Semi-automated offsides are now used in the World Cup and Champions League.

Refusing to introduce them in the Premier League stinks of arrogance. pic.twitter.com/Fuf9HBpTAJ

— Dougie Critchley (@DougieCritchley) October 2, 2023

The Premier League are said to to be "working with several technology companies over developing a similar automated system which does not feature a chip in the ball."

It has also been suggested that discussions over introducing automated offsides was brought up last year but no further action was taken, which will understandably frustrate some amid the ongoing issues.

Serie A, meanwhile, became the first domestic league to introduce an automated system last season. A chip did not feature in the Puma ball.